Many components, mounted in motor vehicles, but not exclusively, such as handles, glove-box lids, ashtray lids or others, have their opening controlled for example by springs. The movement caused by the spring is generally abruptly arrested by a stop. This gives rise to more or less intense noises and more or less violent impacts between the corresponding component and the stop.
Through French patent application 92-03741 now French patent publication 2,674,588, a rotation retarder is known, by means of which the movements of the components caused by the spring are braked. This retarder includes a stator consisting of two cup-shaped pieces, one of which fits on top of the other in order to form a housing in which an O-ring made of elastic plastic is disposed against the peripheral wall. The O-ring member surrounds a circular component of smaller diameter forming part of the rotor, and balls are interposed between the ring and the circular component, which for this purpose has notches in its periphery. The rotational mounting of the rotor is effected by means of a small spindle which the stator has at the center of the housing, and which projects up-wardly with respect to the bottom thereof. The part of the rotor of which the circular component forms a part has at its center a bore engaged on this spindle, and this part also has, opposite this bore, a shaft which passes through the stator cover by means of a hole formed at the center of the cover, the rotor also having, outside the housing, a pinion fixed to this shaft in order to receive the rotational movement to be reached.